India to miss July vaccination target

India will miss a target to administer over a half billion Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of the month.

India has undertaken one of the world’s largest vaccination drives.

It has so far distributed some 430 million doses — more than any country except China, but less than many countries relative to its population.

The government announced in May that it would make 516 million shots available by the end of July.

It wants to inoculate all its estimated 944 million adults by December.

To meet the July-end target, however, authorities would have to more than triple average daily vaccinations to 14 million doses.

But that will not be possible, based on the latest supply projections for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine.

Bharat Biotech, maker of India’s only approved homegrown shot, is struggling to boost its output, an analysis of government data showed on Monday.

The government had been counting on deliveries of 60 million to 70 million Covaxin doses monthly from July or August.

But Bharat Biotech will supply only 25 million doses this month and 35 million in August.

This is because a new production line in Bengaluru is taking time to come online, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya

told parliament last week. Mandaviya added at the time that the supply shortfall would not affect the immunisation programme.

The health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bharat Biotech declined to comment on its production.

The government is counting on 500 million doses of another vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and 400 million doses from Bharat Biotech between August and December for its vaccination campaign.

India’s drug regulator controversially approved Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for emergency use in early January without efficacy data.

But it has missed nearly all its supply commitments to the government.

Immunisation efforts have also been hobbled by a delayed rollout of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and by legal obstacles preventing India from receiving US donations of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

After halting exports in midapril to meet domestic demand, SII meanwhile has nearly doubled output in the past three months.

Nearly 88% of all vaccine doses administered in India to date have been SII’S Covishield shot, a version of the Astrazeneca vaccine.

The government expects the company to raise supplies of Covishield to about 120 million doses in August from 100 million doses in June.